Operationalizing places in GIScience: A review

The space–place dichotomy has long been discussed in geography, psychology, philosophy, and more recently in geographic information science. The attempts to integrate vague notions of place into geographic information systems (GIS) constitute the foundations of the place-based GIS stream of research, but the rationale and methods for operationalizing place differ considerably in the literature. We present a literature review in an attempt to identify and discuss the distinct yet overlapping frameworks that aim to bridge the gap between space, place, and GIS. The review shows that most studies designed knowledge-based models in the urban context based on concepts drawn from human geography. Using mixed methods, we synthesize the findings, thus encouraging future research in building new conceptual and methodological models that are able to expand and solidify the scope of place-based GIS.